Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society
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The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society is a non-profit professional organization for instrument engineers that was originally known as the Instrument Society of America. The society is more commonly known by its acronym, ISA. Since the current name does not fit the acronym, Richard Caro, an [ISA Fellow], has suggested that ISA's full name be International Society for Automation to Pat Gouhin, ISA's current Executive Director.
ISA is one of the foremost professional organizations in the world for setting standards and educating industry professionals in the instrumentation and automation industry. Instrumentation and automation are some of the key technologies involved in nearly all industrialized manufacturing. Modern industrial manufacturing is a complex interaction of numerous systems. Instrumentation provides regulation for these complex systems using many different measurement and control devices. Automation provides the programmable devices that permit greater flexibility in the operation of these complex manufacturing systems.
ISA provides leadership and education in the instrumentation and automation industries, assisting engineers, technicians, and research scientists, as well as many others, in keeping pace with the rapidly changing industry. ISA is the host of the largest trade show for instrumentation and automation professionals in the Western Hemisphere. ISA members are able to gain input from professionals around the world and may get the answer for almost any technical question quickly and without the need to search through multiple sources. ISA professionals work in numerous fields and may provide expertise in diverse areas ranging from environmental quality to automobile manufacturing, to nearly any technological field in use today.
ISA standards play a vital role in the work of instrumentation and automation professionals. Many ISA standards have been recognized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ISA standards cover a broad breadth of concepts of importance to instrumentation and automation professionals. ISA has standards committees for symbols and nomenclature used within the industry, safety standards for equipment in non-hazardous and hazardous environments, communications standards to permit interoperable equipment availability from several manufacturers, and additional committees for standards on many more technical issues of importance to the industry. An example of one significant ISA standard is the ANSI/ISA-50.02 Fieldbus Standard for Use in Industrial Control Systems, which is a product of the ISA-SP50 Signal Compatibility of Electrical Instruments committee. Another significant ISA standard family is the batch processing standards of ANSI/ISA-88.00.01 Models and Terminology, ANSI/ISA-88.00.02 Data Structures and Guidelines for Languages, and ANSI/ISA-88.00.03 General and Site Recipe Models and Representation, which are products of the ISA-SP88 Batch Control committee.
History
ISA was officially founded by Richard Rimbach of the Instruments Publishing Company on April 28, 1945, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as the Instrument Society of America. During World War II instruments became widely used and, after the war, instruments expanded their role in the technological post-war society. In 1946 ISA named its first president, Albert F. Sperry, who was then chairman of the Panelit Corporation. In 1949, ISA issued its first standard, RP 5.1 Instrument Flow Plan Symbols. In 1954 ISA issued its first journal. This journal is the predecessor of the ISA InTech magazine that the organization publishes today. ISA is an international organization that published the first United States versions of the IEC 60079 series as early as 1987.
ISA has grown from 900 members in 1946 to today’s current membership of upwards of 39,000 members from more than 110 countries. ISA is currently based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA. In 2000, to recognize the growth of ISA into an international organization, ISA changed its legal name to ISA-The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society.
External links
- http://isa.org/ -- The official ISA Website
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